TWO architects of Italy -- austere Men who could fashion nothing small -- refused To die with life; and for their purpose used This dim, this topless Amphitheatre. Some Caesar trench'd the orb of its ellipse And call'd on distant provinces to swell Resonant arches, whence his World could scan, Tier above tier, the fighters and the ships. But Dante, having raised, as dreamer can, Higher tenfold these walls immutable, Sole in the night arena, grew aware He was himself the thing spectacular Seized by the ever-thirsting gaze of Hell, Here on the empty sand, a banish'd man. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AUGUST MOONRISE by SARA TEASDALE THE WINDHOVER: TO CHRIST OUR LORD by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE CLINGING VINE by ANTIPATER OF SIDON LITTLE JOHN AND THE RED FRIAR; A LAY OF SHERWOOD by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 30. CHRIST AND WOMAN by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |